Back To Earth
by Chiquinta
Summary: Palermo returns to Los Angeles after his 'leave'. Updated 10Aug03
1. Default Chapter 1

Palermo returns to Santa Monica after two years leave in Italy. He's been assigned to Long Beach PD after the retirement of their lieutenant.  
Back To Earth  
  
Cory rushed out of the lieutenant's office where she'd been sorting through paper work as soon as she saw that the Chief's car had pulled into the parking lot. She was eager to find out who the new lieutenant would be. In fact she'd been excited about the whole process she'd tossed and turned all night and Tc had threatened to make her sleep on the couch.  
Cory broke into a huge grin when the Chief waltzed through the doors of Long Beach Police Department with a tall, muscular, tanned blonde with an otherwise familiar face.  
The Chief made the introductions. 'Lieutenant Palermo, this is your sergeant, Cory McNamara. Sergeant McNamara, this is your new lieutenant, Anthony Palermo.'  
Cory immediately gave Tony a big hug. 'It's great to see you again.'  
'It's great to see you too.' He said.  
The Chief looked a little confused. 'I take it you two have met.'  
Cory nodded. 'He used to be my lieutenant at Santa Monica before Lieutenant Callaway.'  
'Ah.' The Chief just nodded. 'Then I can see that you will have no problem working together.' He looked at his watch. 'I'm sorry Tony, I have to rush off to a meeting. I'm sure Sergeant McNamara can show you the ropes.' He gave Cory a polite smile before leaving.  
Cory beamed. 'So.' She said.  
'So.' He replied.  
'What have you been up to?'  
'Nothing much. Relaxing, getting a lot of sun, that sort of thing.'  
'Sounds great.' She said with envy. Lately she didn't even have time to file her nails properly.  
'It was. So what about you? What are you even doing here? What happened at Santa Monica?'  
Cory held up her left hand so show off her wedding ring.  
'Who's the lucky guy?' Palermo asked.  
Cory blushed. 'Tc.'  
He gave her a startled look. 'You poor thing.' He said jokingly and she gave him a friendly punch on the arm. 'Seriously though, how did that happen?'  
'I got pregnant.'  
'Really?'  
She nodded. 'It wasn't really meant to happen that way. I got pregnant and we started thinking. 'She sighed. 'Cut a long story short, we fell in love and got married.'  
Palermo frowned. 'So what happened to Chris then. Last I heard she was married to Tc.'  
Cory shrugged. 'I'm not really sure what happened. All I know is she joined the FBI and left Tc heartbroken. We haven't heard from her in ages. I called her and left messages for her a couple of times. She sent us a wedding present and a card when the baby was born but that's about as much contact as we've had.'  
'That's a shame. She was a good officer.'  
'Yeah, and a good friend.' Cory bit her lip. 'And you heard about Victor?'  
He nodded slowly.  
There was an awkward silence between them for a while.  
'Why are you back?' She said lightly tapping him on the arm. 'We though that you'd stayed there when you didn't come back.'  
He shrugged. 'Things got complicated. I met someone and her family didn't like the fact that I'd been married before and that I had Jessie. She has one of those really close Italian families and she felt her decision to marry me was tearing them apart. In the end she decided to come back here with me.'  
'She won't miss her family?' Cory asked. She'd gone to school with some kids with a family like that. They didn't like being in the country without their family.  
'She does miss them, already. But she's going to a language support group at the community hall. I know she'll make friends there.'  
'And when do I get to meet her?'  
Tony smiled. 'She's going to meet me here for lunch one day this week. Actually she'll be really glad to meet you. She's been dying to meet the people I keep telling her stories about.'  
Cory put her hand across her heart. 'I'm honoured. What's her name?'  
'Carli, short for Carlotta.  
'That's a pretty name.'  
'She's a pretty lady.' Palermo smiled and blushed a bit. 'I can't help it. We're not married yet, just engaged. I'm still required to fawn over her.'  
Cory smiled. She remembered Tc coming home one night with a rather bemused look on his face. Upon asking what was wrong he answered with 'I got told to stop talking about you today.' Apparently he'd been talking about her all week and everyone at the firehouse had heard enough. Cory thought that it was very sweet of him.  
Palermo looked around the building. It was quite a lot bigger than the Santa Monica station.  
Cory read the look on his face. 'It's not that scary. Come with me, I'll show you to your office.' 


	2. Default Chapter 2

Cory bounced in the front door that night and wrapped her arms around her husband's waist.  
  
Tc was standing at the stove cooking dinner, stirring a pot with one arm and bouncing their baby girl on his hip with the other.  
  
'Guess what?' She said excitedly.  
  
'You're standing behind me completely naked?' He said hopefully.  
  
'Nope.'  
  
'Darn.' He handed her the baby and went to the pantry to get some pepper.  
  
'Palermo is back.'  
  
Tc nodded and shook some pepper into the sauce he was making.  
  
'You aren't even a little bit pleased about it? What the matter, you used to be close.'  
  
'Well what do you expect me to do? Run up to him and give him a big sloppy kiss? I haven't seen the guy for two years and I have had a few things on my mind since then.'  
  
Cory frowned. 'Are you okay?'  
  
'Just peachy.' He replied dryly. 'Apart from having this one,' he kissed his daughter on her semi bald head, 'throwing up all over the office.'  
  
'Still can't find a sitter?'  
  
Tc shook his head. 'I'm half tempted to stick a flyer up at the high school. At least then someone could take her for a few hours.'  
  
'I wonder if Carli likes kids.' Cory thought aloud.  
  
'Who's Carli?'  
  
'Tony's girlfriend. They moved here because her family didn't approve of him.'  
  
'Charming.' He hadn't told Cory about the discussion he'd had with HIS family. After Chris they were hoping he'd marry some CEO with a Mercedes and a mansion in Beverly Hills. Luckily they'd been able to hold their tongues around his wife.  
  
Cory sniffed her daughter. 'Has she had a bath yet?'  
  
Tc shook his head. 'No, I only got home about 15 minutes ago.'  
  
'Okay, I'll change her and bath her.' Cory left Tc in the kitchen and carried her daughter upstairs to the bathroom, muttering something about smelly babies on the way.  
  
+++++  
  
Tony's office was empty when Cory arrived at Long Beach the next morning.  
  
'Where's Lieutenant Palermo?' She asked one of her officers.  
  
The officer shrugged. 'He was in here for a few minutes then left. Said something about a family emergency.'  
  
'Already?' She muttered her to herself.  
  
+++++  
  
It was lunch time before he finally made an appearance.  
  
He strode into the station looking dishevelled and rather annoyed.  
  
Cory followed him into his office. 'Is everything ok?'  
  
Tony sat down behind the desk. 'Before I left Italy Jessie called. She was seemed really happy that I was coming back and wanted me to call her when I arrived.'  
  
'I've been calling the number she gave me and it always rings out. I called Helen this morning and she says she hasn't seen Jessie in about eight weeks.' He leaned his forearms on the desk and looked at Cory for an answer.  
  
'Maybe she's…out with friends?'  
  
'For eight weeks?'  
  
Cory shrugged. 'Did Helen say anything about it?'  
  
'Only that Jessie was being a disagreeable teenager. She said Jessie swore that when she was 18 she'd move out. She left just after her 17th birthday and barely stays in touch with her mother.' Tony leaned back and put his hands behind his head. 'And nobody bothered to tell me until now.'  
  
'So you were out with Jessie this morning then?'  
  
'No. This morning I was out checking up on possible addresses given to me by Helen and Jessie's friends. Nobody has seen her. Nobody knows where she is. AND, nobody seems to even know if she's still alive.'  
  
'Except you.'  
  
'Cory I haven't seen her. I spoke to her on the phone about a week ago. That's it.' He was getting flustered.  
  
'I'm sure she'll show up.' Cory said trying to reassure him.  
  
'I hope so too. That's why I made this up.' He handed her a piece of paper.  
  
'A missing persons report.' Cory said to herself. 'You really think that's necessary.'  
  
'Cory, you have a child. Wouldn't you do the same?'  
  
'Probably.' Except her baby had only just learned to sit up. She didn't think Keira was quite to the stage of running away.  
  
'I was hoping you could file it.' Tony said.  
  
'Are you sure? She's listed as Jessie Palermo. The people downstairs are going to make the connection.'  
  
Tony looked her square in the eye. 'I don't care.' He said with a sarcastic grin. 'I want my daughter back.'  
  
Cory nodded and went downstairs to file the report. She called her team together and briefed them on it as they were about to go out on patrol.  
  
One of her officers, Billy Guerrero made the connection. 'Someone we know?' He asked.  
  
'It's a case like any other. She's missing, we have to find her.'  
  
Her officers left and she faxed the report to the other stations in the area.  
  
+++++ 


End file.
